Toward an Integrative Islamic Philosophy of Education: Ghazzali, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, and the Ethics of Knowing

• In Event: Islamic Epistemologies, Decolonial Pedagogy, and Many Ways of Knowing

Abstract

This paper proposes an Islamic philosophy of education rooted in al-Ghazzālī’s integrative epistemology as a compelling framework for contemporary educational theory and decolonial pedagogy. Challenging the colonial foundations of Western-centric schooling—which often privileges empiricism, individualism, and cognitive dualism—this work draws on classical Islamic thought to offer an epistemic model built on relationality, intuition, and ethical discernment. Al-Ghazzālī’s hierarchy of knowledge, encompassing perception, reason, authority/testimony, and spiritual unveiling, provides the foundation for an educational model that resists extractivist and disembodied approaches to learning (Lone, 2017; Muhaya, 2015).

In dialogue with scholars of epistemic justice and decolonial theory (e.g., de Sousa Santos, 2018; Quijano, 2000), this paper advances Ghazzālī’s vision of integrative epistemologies as a pathway toward cognitive justice in education. Through a close reading of Ibn Ṭufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqẓān, we illustrate how a Ghazzālian epistemology foregrounds the learner’s interior transformation and relational awareness over reductive content mastery. Each epistemic mode is treated as partial but necessary: perception enables sensory orientation but risks commodification; reason structures inquiry but can become ethically hollow; authority anchors tradition but must be engaged dialogically; and intuition synthesizes all others, rooting knowledge in ethical and spiritual discernment (Ibn Ṭufayl & Goodman, 2009; Lone, 2017).

This integrative epistemology critiques the colonial separation of the sacred and the scientific and insists on education as a moral and spiritual process. By reimagining educators as facilitators of discernment rather than dispensers of facts, this framework affirms the heart and spirit as an epistemic organ (Al-Ghazālī, trans. 1998). The paper concludes by highlighting implications for ethnic studies, science education, and educational justice, arguing that Ghazzālī’s model offers a robust paradigm for curricular transformation, one that privileges epistemic plurality, spiritual depth, and ethical responsibility.

Author

• Arshad Imtiaz Ali, The George Washington University